Rogers scolds McKeon during Cemex site visit

Lee Rogers, who’s running against Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, for the 25th Congressional District in November’s election, toured the proposed Cemex mine site on Saturday, calling for action against locating a sand-and-gravel mine there.

“This mine would negatively impact 250,000 people in the Santa Clarita Valley,” Rogers said. “It threatens our air and water quality and will clog traffic on Highway 14 by adding up to 1,200 trucks per day.”

Stopping the mine has long been a goal of local officials.

A deal has been struck that would grant federal land near Victorville for the company that would then relocate its plans there. The deal needs to be formally approved in Congress through legislation because there’s federal land involved.

McKeon said he would not re-introduce the most recent version of such a bill during the current legislative session, which ends Dec. 14, due to a Republican ban on earmarks in the GOP-controlled House.

Cemex purchased mining contracts for the Soledad Canyon site from the Bureau of Land Management in 1990, with the intent of opening a 56-million-ton sand and gravel mine in Canyon Country.